COLUMBIA, S.C. — The mass shooting at a Texas Elementary School has sparked national conversation about what's being done to keep students safe in the classrooms.
Law enforcement officials throughout the Midlands say when an active shooter is on school grounds, it's all hands on deck to ensure each staff member is doing their part to keep students safe.
“Many times we hear staff say, I thought it was fireworks," said Kershaw County safety coordinator Doug Bowling.
Bowling says staff are well prepared for an active shooter on campus.
“Anytime you have an active attack, you’ve got to just, it’s too late to prepare. You’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to have a plan in place," he said.
Bowling trains both school resource officers and school staff about how to respond when a school was is under attack.
Employees are trained through lockdown drills once a semester.
“We have three things. First thing is you’re gonna announce that we’re going into lockdown. Once the announcement is made over the intercom to go on lockdown, it’s imperative that our staff do three things, and those three things are announced over the radio, and that’s lights, locks, out of sight," he said.
This means staff are told to turn off the lights, lock their doors, and hide somewhere in a classroom or a closet where an attacker can't see them.
Kenyatta Jenkins is the sole school resource officer in the city of Orangeburg and says staff is trained through intruder drills. Communication among staff at this time is crucial.
“The key part is to communicate so that I know, the person who’s looking for the suspect knows where the suspect is so that I can either take them into custody or engage that target if I need to," said officer Jenkins.
Officer Bowling says in some cases, staff are left with the tough decision of letting students into the classroom who may be wandering the halls after the lockdown started.
“I try to tell our staff, think about where the noise is coming from in relation to your location. If it’s a distance away, absolutely get that child in, open the door and then re secure that door and get out of sight," he said.
He says the staff's training doesn't stop after the lockdown, it continues until all the students are moved to a different location and reunited with their parents.
“It’s definitely gonna be a challenge and it’s obviously gonna be frustrating because parents wanna know how children are."